Savina Barini (Ensemble) (they/them) is a graduate of Howard University’s BFA in musical theater and has studied musical theater, restoration comedy, Shakespeare, and devising techniques in New York, Idaho, D.C., and London. Offstage, Barini is a playwright and teaching artist with curricula in dance, movement, Shakespeare, and ensemble-building for K-12 students. Regional: Moxie Arts NY: one drop cool (May); The Spot: Sweeney Todd (Lucy Barker/Beggar Woman), Cabaret (Rosie/Rudy), Pippin (Leading Player); Rorschach Theatre: ¡nails!: A Happy Gay Latinx Play (Catalina); Adventure Theatre MTC: ¡Luchadora! (Lupita/Mascara Rosa II).

Charles Franklin IV (Ensemble) (he/him) is from Southeast Washington, D.C. Recent credits include Blood at the Root at Theater Alliance (Helen Hayes Awards: Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Production). He has also performed in Day of Absence at Theater Alliance, Klecksography at Rorschach Theatre, and Snow Queen at Imagination Stage. Franklin recently directed a stage reading of the play Where Eagles Fly, in partnership with Events DC and will direct a full production of the play in 2024–2025. Franklin holds a Bachelors in theater arts, acting and directing from Bowie State University and trained at Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

Ixchel Hernández (Ensemble) (she/her) is a Salvadoran-American/Nahua actress, singer-songwriter, stand-up comic, and storyteller based in the D.C. area. Acting credits include Angel Rose Artist Collective: Isiwapilzin Tućinamit; NextStop Theatre Company: In the Heights (Nina Rosario); Constellation Theatre Company: Incognito (Woman 2), We Happy Few: La Llorona; Imagination Stage: Linda y Libre; Restoration Stage: The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus; The Bushwick Starr: Big Green Theater. She has performed and featured her music, stand-up, and storytelling for Spit Dat in Residence at Woolly Mammoth, The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Rhizome DC, 7DrumCity, Comedy Loft, Callback Comedy, Improbable Comedy, Grassroots Comedy, Busboys and Poets, and the Constituents DC.

Tre’mon Kentrell Mills (Ensemble) (he/him) returns to this stage is a testament to his dedication and passion for his craft. His credits include The Bluest Eye (Cholly Breedlove) with Theater Alliance; Push the Button Musical (Villian) with Keegan Theatre; Roll On (Joshua) with THEARC; P. Nokio: The Hip Hop Musical (P. Nokio) and 10 seconds (Jimi) with Imagination Stage; and A Raisin in the Sun (Bobo), Mamma Mia (Sky), and The Great Society (Bevel/Jackson) with Lyric Repertory Theatre. Mills thanks Theater Alliance, the cast and crew, and his family and friends for their continued support. “With each performance, I strive to bring a transformative impact to audiences while immersing myself in the work I love.”  

Kalen Robinson (Ensemble) (she/her) credits her success to God and her endlessly supportive village of family and friends who believe in her. Regional credits include: Imagination Stage: Nate the Great (Annie), The Hula Hoopin’ Queen (Kameeka); Constellation Theatre: Once on This Island (Ti Moune); Folger Theatre: Our Verse in Time to Come (Sprite); Fulton Theatre: Cinderella (Stepsister), 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Logainne S.); Toby’s Dinner Theatre: Elf: The Musical (Deb), Grease (Jan), Rocky: the Musical (Angie); Round House Theatre: Spring Awakening (Thea). Robinson has her BFA in musical theater from Howard University.

John Sygar (Ensemble) (he/him) is from Bowie, Maryland. Other D.C. credits include A.D. 16, Beauty and the Beast, Once (Olney Theatre Center), Light Years (Signature Theatre), Spring Awakening (Round House Theatre), Peter and the Starcatcher (Constellation Theatre Company), Aquarium, Robin Hood (Imagination Stage), Floyd Collins (1st Stage), and more. He also writes music for the group, Baseball Hat, and his solo project, Jsyg. Upcoming: Swept Away (Arena Stage).   

Cynthia Davis is an actor and singer who graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in theater studies from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She is ecstatic to be making her debut here at the Kennedy Center with TYA. Other past credits include: Nate the Great (Understudy); Audrey: The New Musical (Ella Fitzgerald); Sistas The Musical (Tamika); Roll On The Musical (Shirlie Mae); From the Mississippi Delta (Woman 1); Fairy Tales in the Sun (Understudy). Davis would like to thank her family for their constant love and support and God for the opportunities he has continued to provide her. Catch Davis next in Mouse on the Move at Imagination Stage.

Tyrell Stanley (he/him) is from Baltimore, MD, and is thrilled to be making his Kennedy Center TYA debut. Other DMV Credits include SIGNATURE Theater: Passing Strange (Youth, Terry u/s), The Color Purple (Swing). Olney Theatre Center: Kinky Boots (Swing); Keegan Theatre: Memphis (Ensemble, Bobby u/s). The Heritage Ensemble Theatre Company: Confessions of a Black Cowboy (Nat Love/Willie Kennard); Baltimore Center Stage: Dreamgirls (C.C. White); ArtsCentric: Once on This Island (Armand), The Wiz (Ensemble, Lion, TinMan u/s), Aida (Ensemble), Memphis (Ensemble, Wailin’ Joe); Cockpit in Court: Sister Act (TJ), Gypsy (Yonkers); TV/FILM: HBO: We Own This City; Paramount+: Lioness. AWARDS: 2021 BroadwayWorld.com Baltimore Regional Award for Lighting Design of the Decade. EDUCATION: Virginia Union University.

Carl L. Williams (he/him/his) is thrilled to make his return to the Kennedy Center's TYA season! Some of his favorite past credits include: Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie Starring Indigo Blume (National Tour) (Mules Davis), Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus! The Musical! (National Tour) (Pigeon), Ordinary Days (Warren), Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds (National Tour) (Ziggy), The Color Purple (Harpo), In The Heights (Benny), Sister Act (Sweaty Eddie), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mitch Mahoney), and Once On This Island (Papa Ge). 

Natalia Fyfe (she/ella) is overjoyed to be making her Kennedy Center TYA debut. Recent D.C. area credits include: In The Heights (Ensemble, U/S Nina, Vanessa, Carla) at NextStop Theatre Company, This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Albienne) with Theater Alliance, La Llamada de Sylvia Méndez: Separate is Never Equal (u/s All Tracks) at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 21 Days to Save a Life (Zoey Reed) with Prince William Little Theatre, and MetroStage + Quintango's workshop of VOLVER (Tita Álvarez). Fyfe has also performed at The Guthrie, The Southern Theater, and Stages Theatre Co. in Minneapolis. TRAINING: George Mason University B.F.A. MT. UPCOMING: Food for the Gods at UMD // Gracias a mi gente por todo y pa'lante! 

Raymond O. Caldwell (he/him/his) was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and raised all over the world. As an award-winning director and producer, he has directed for Signature Theatre, Round House, Imagination Stage, Mosaic Theater, the Kennedy Center, National Players, Olney Theatre Center, Solas Nua, CulturalDC, and the Hegira.

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Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of many award-winning books, including Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, All American Boys (with Brendan Kiely), Long Way Down, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (with Ibram X. Kendi), Stuntboy, In The Meantime (illustrated by Raúl the Third), and Ain’t Burned All the Bright (with artwork by Jason Griffin).

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Ezinne Elele (she/her): DC AREA: Signature Theatre: The Color Purple (Assistant Director); Round House Theatre: Nollywood Dreams (Assistant Director). ACTING: Theater Alliance: This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing; Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience; A Chorus Within Her; Day of Absence (Helen Hayes Nomination: Ensemble). 1^st Stage: Under the Sea with Dredgie Mcgee; Creede Repertory Theatre: Seeds of Change YA Tour. EDUCATION: Howard University: BFA.

El Chelito (he/him) is a Salvadoran-American theatermaker and D.C. native. He has adapted and directed plays for GALA Hispanic Theater (Príncipe y Príncipe: A Bilingual Fairy Tale and Que las hay, las hay/Believe it or not!) and Pointless Theatre Co. (Don Cristóbal; Helen Hayes Nomination Outstanding Adaptation), where he is a Company Member. Additional area credits include: People Watching (Lead Deviser/Writer; Extreme Lengths & CulturalDC); Under the Sea with Dredgie McGee (Associate Director/Producer, 1^st Stage; Helen Hayes Nomination Outstanding TYA Production); ¡Linda y Libre! and Óyeme, the beautiful (Director, Imagination Stage, Theatre for Change).

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Jeannette Christensen (she/her) is a Helen Hayes winning costume designer, illustrator, and fashion stylist based in Baltimore, MD. She has most notably designed costumes for the Broadway national tour of On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan 2022-2023 and the Kennedy Center's national tour/world premiere of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! 2019. She has designed for many theaters including the Kennedy Center, American Players Theater, Oklahoma City Rep, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Theatre Festival, Folger Theater, Gala Hispanic Theatre, and Olney Theater Center. She has been an associate designer with The Muny, Round House Theatre, Wolf Trap Opera, and Studio Theatre. She has worked as a costume designer/mentor with Arizona State University, University of Maryland, Bowie State University, American University, and George Washington University. She recently launched her own sustainable clothing brand, called Ronni-X. EDUCATION: BA in Design & Production from Arizona State University, MFA in Design from the University of Maryland.

Jennifer Clements (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate writer and theater practitioner based in Washington, D.C. Her plays have been produced by companies including Capital Repertory Theatre, Creative Cauldron, Federal Theatre Project, Stay Awake! Theatre, and Theater Alliance, and she served as the developmental dramaturg on Theater Alliance’s A Chorus Within Her. In addition to her role as the Managing Director at Theater Alliance, she currently teaches at American University and is a member of the Theatre Washington Board of Directors. A recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright Program and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, awards include the inaugural Brian Turner Literary Arts Award as well as nominations for the Pushcart Prize, the Larry Neal Writer’s Award, and the Best of the Net Award, among other honors. EDUCATION: Marist College, BA | George Mason University, MFA.

Kelly Colburn (she/they/k): Kelly is an interdisciplinary artist working as a producer, director, projections designer, and devised performance maker in the D.C. Area (Piscataway/Nacotchtank lands). She is the Artistic Lead for Theatre at Flying V, the Digital Producer at Theater Alliance, and Helen Hayes recipient. OFF-BROADWAY: New York Theatre Workshop, american (tele)visions. DC: Round House/Olney Theatre Center: Fela!; Gala Hispanic: La Casa en la Laguna, Mosaic: Dear Mapel. REGIONAL: Everyman: Baskerville, The Sound Inside. AWARDS: 2020 Helen Hayes Recipient – Lighting/Media Design – Blood at the Root, 2022 Helen Hayes Award Nominee, 2022 Lucille Lortel Awards Nominee, 2018 Jim Henson Puppetry Grant, 2017 NextLOOK Resident. EDUCATION: BFA NYU Tisch ’11 | MFA UMD ’18.

Brandon Cook (he/him), a local Washington, D.C. sound designer and engineer, is excited to be back with the Kennedy Center and Theater Alliance. He is thankful for the amazing opportunity to work with the wonderful and talented cast and crew of This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing. Recent credits include: Lifespan Of A Fact, Keegan Theatre (2023), La Revoltosa, Gala Theatre (2022), ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore, The Winter’s Tale, Hedda Gabler Shakespeare Theatre Company ACA Rep (2022), and Poetry For The People, Theater Alliance (2022).

Cidney Forkpah (she/her) Chosen design credits include Bathing in Moonlight, Kumanana!, Revoltosa (GALA Hispanic Theatre), Diagnosed (Creative Cauldron), Associate Design: On Your Feet! En Español, the National Tour of On Your Feet!, Show Way (The Kennedy Center), Our Verse in Time to Come (Folger Theatre), The Piano Lesson (Prince George’s Community College), Julius Caesar and The Cherry Orchard (STC’s The Academy for Classical Acting). Wardrobe Associate: Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Saint Joan, Sense & Sensibility, and Nell Gwynn (Folger Theatre). Forkpah holds a BA from Lees-McRae College in Performing Arts Studies.

Nick “tha 1da” Hernandez Theater credits include Our Verse in Time to Come at The Folger, The Day You Begin and Long Way Down at the Kennedy Center; Nollywood Dreams at Round House Theatre; Fences at Ford’s Theater; Native Son & Les Deux Noirs at Mosaic Theater; Word Become Flesh at Theater Alliance (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Production); Havana Hop & All the Way Live (with sibling Paige Hernandez); Oyeme: The Beautiful and The Hip-Hop Children’s Trilogy (with playwright Psalmayene 24) at Imagination Stage; Luchadora at Adventure Theater; and Stomping Grounds at Glimmerglass; Additional credits include music production for Hot 97 FM; Netflix, Smithsonian Associates, Words Beats & Life, Inc. & DC Public Libraries.

Kelsey N. Jenkins (she/her) is enthralled to be working with TYA here at the Kennedy Center! Jenkins is a local DMV Stage Manager born and raised in Maryland. Recent credits include: Signature Theatre (Production Assistant): The Bridge of Madison County, The Color Purple. Arena Stage (Production Assistant), Step Afrika Magical Mystical Holiday Step Show, The High Ground, and Exclusion. Previous Theatre Alliance (Stage Manager): Brownsville Song: Or B Side for Tray,(ASM) Going to a Place Where You Already Are. Look Both Ways - there's love on both sides!

Amy Kellett (she/her) is excited to be back working with the Kennedy Center and Theater Alliance. Previous shows include This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, Do You Feel Anger?, The Blackest Battle, and Day of Absence. Other regional credits include Fun Home and The Hot Wing King at Studio Theatre, Incendiary at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Falsettos and Things that are Round at Rep Stage; the Mamalogues at 1^st Stage; Moon Man Walk and Once On This Island at Constellation Theatre Company; An Act of God at NextStop Theatre Company; Dreamgirls and RENT at ArtsCentric; Visions of Love, Rite of Spring, Don Cristobal, and King Ubu at Pointless Theatre Company; Príncipe y Príncipe and Que Las Hay, Las Hay at Gala Hispanic Theatre; American Spies and Other Homegrown Fables, The Burn, Secrets of the Universe and Other Songs, The Late Wedding, and Peekaboo! at The Hub Theatre; The Three Musketeers and A Tale of Two Cities at Synetic Theater; the New Play Festival 2016 at YPT; and Young Playwrights Festival 2022 at Baltimore Center Stage. Some of the other hats Kellett wears include being a puppeteer and a scenic charge.

Tiffany Quinn (she/her): Credits include: Passing Strange (Signature Theatre), Diagnosed (Creative Cauldron), Show Way the Musical, Beastgirl, Earthrise (The Kennedy Center), The Bluest Eye, A Chorus Within Her, The Blackest Battle, Blood at the Root (Theater Alliance), Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip Hop Creation Myth (Imagination Stage), The Diary of Anne Frank (National Players Tour), Les Deux Noirs (Mosaic Theater), The Frederick Douglass Project (Solas Nua), Trojan Women, The Children’s Hour, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Howard University), In The Heights (Montgomery Community College), The Mail Order Bride (University of Maryland Baltimore County). Assistant to Choreographer – Ronald K. Brown Dancing Spirit (The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) and For Truth (Phiadanco!), Restaged A Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare Theater Company) – Camille A. Brown, Choreographer. Performance credits: Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company, B. Moore Dance, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and Francine E. Ott./The Walk. AWARDS: Helen Hayes for Outstanding Choreography in a Play (Helen) – Blood at the Root – Theater Alliance. EDUCATION: Howard University, Bachelor of Fine Arts – Dance Arts.

Jonathan Dahm Robertson (he/him) is a scenic and projections designer for theater, opera, and events. Selected opera credits: Nixon in China, Fidelio, Peter Grimes (Princeton Festival); Candide, Un Ballo En Maschera, Cosi Fan Tutte (Opera in the Heights, Houston); The Consul (A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute). Selected theater credits: Day of Absence, Blood at the Root (Theater Alliance); The Agitators, Oh God (Mosaic Theater Co.); The Christians (Theater J); Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Murder for Two, One Slight Hitch, Jesus Christ Superstar, and more (Totem Pole Playhouse); Broadway Bound, Member of the Wedding (1^st Stage); Coolatully, The Frederick Douglass Project (Solas Nua); The Small Room at the Top of Stairs (Spooky Action Theater Company), and many more. Robertson holds a BFA in Scenic Design from UNCSA, and was a 2015-16 Kenan Fellow at the Kennedy Center. Member USA829.

Alberto Segarra (he/him) is a freelance lighting designer located in Washington, D.C. He holds a BA from the University of Puerto Rico and a MFA in Lighting Design from University of Maryland-College Park. Design credits include: El indio en América (Exhibition, 2006) at Museo de las Américas; Once on this Island; Celia… Vida y música; Hair; Cabaret; Salsa Gorda; La Charca; Tun Tun de Pasa y Grifería; Boeing Boeing; Dangerous Liasons; Glass Menagerie; El Josco; La Ilamarada; La Cage aux Folles; Evita and La Mina de Oro for Teatro Repertorio, University of Puerto Rico; Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico’s Festival de Coreógrafos and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; the opera Carmen and the play Oedipus. He is a founding member of Teatro Repertorio de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Segarra worked as TD and resident lighting designer for Andanza Compañía de Danza Contemporánea in San Juan, Puerto Rico for five years. He is a member of United Scenic Artist, Local 829.

Emma Rose Sheffer (she/they) is thrilled to return to this production as it transitions from Theater Alliance to the Kennedy Center. As a former middle school teacher (and avid Jason Reynolds fan), they are honored to be a part of this adaptation of content that so deeply respects young people. In addition to this production, Sheffer will also be working as a teaching artist on Long Way Down (another Reynolds title) at Olney Theatre Center this fall, as well as teaching a playwriting class for nonverbal typers with Reach Every Voice.

Dylan Uremovich (he/him) is a lighting and multimedia designer for live performance and installations, based in Washington, D.C. He earned his Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Maryland, focusing his studies on lighting and multimedia design. He received his bachelor’s degree in theater design/technology from Northern Arizona University.